Professional Flash® Lite® Mobile Development

Chapter 5. PureMVC ActionScript 2.0 Framework

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Implementing the PureMVC framework for Flash Lite applications

• Exploring key concepts

• Creating an example PureMVC application

PureMVC is a free open source development framework that can be used to develop and structure your Flash applications. The reference implementation for the PureMVC framework was written in AS3 by project architect and the founder Cliff Hall.

For Flash Lite, you will be using the AS2 version of the framework ported by Pedr Browne.

DESIGN PATTERNS AND DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS

For Flash Lite Mobile Device application developers, the options for a reliable and robust development framework are limited.

While there are numerous development frameworks for AS2, they tend to be for the desktop or browser version of the Flash Player and have not been considered or optimized for mobile device usage.

Time for a Development Framework

So why do Flash Lite mobile device applications need a development framework?

Among the many aspects to development, the design of mobile applications requires you to consider what happens when the user interacts with their application on the device, when data should be retrieved, or how a view should be displayed. A development framework like PureMVC can provide us with a structured solution that enables us to implement all of the above features with ease.

The following areas give you an idea of the current obstacles to developing Flash Lite mobile device applications without a development ...